Composts & Mulches

Mulch is a a protective covering (as of sawdust, compost) spread or left on the ground to reduce evaporation, maintain even soil temperature, prevent erosion, control weeds, enrich the soil, or keep fruit (as strawberries) clean.

If you are not using mulches you may be spending a lot more time and money than necessary to keep your plants and gardens hardy and healthy.

The most efficient mulches are organic material which will hold moisture, keep roots cool in the summer, warm in the winter and which will decompose slowly while releasing essential nutrients in the soil. If you are mulching for the main purpose of increasing the quality of your soil, we recommend Black Mulch – a decomposing fir bark which is used as an additive to break up soil.

It is one of the most useful amendments as it increases air content and water retention while restoring nutrients lost to plant consumption. When transplanting or preparing a garden bed, mix or rototill a percentage of black mulch into the soil.

Note that mulch should be mixed with either your existing soil, or substituted with a Mulch/TopSoil combination, as the mulch alone does not contain all of the necessary nutrients for plant growth, and its pH level is not generally healthy for most plants.

Mulch is very useful in maintaining a healthy landscape. We highly recommend using mulch with most of your plants because of its protective properties.

Mulch reduces evaporation because it acts like a barrier. Evaporation is big factor in water loss, this is why it is recommended that your landscape be watered at night so the soil can have the most time to retain water. You can continue to defend your soil from evaporation during the day by adding mulch to your soil.

Mulch also acts like an insulator. During the summer heat mulch protects the soil from getting too hot and hurting the roots of plants on your landscape. It also protects during the winter though. During the winter mulch protects the soil and roots in the soil from freezing.

Too much heat or too much cold can hurt a plant and mulch protects the plant from any damage.

Mulch protects against soil erosion. Have you ever watered your plants and seen the soil just float away or the force of the water make a path through your soil? Mulch can help prevent this from happening. It thickens up the soil to prevent it from being eroded through by wind or water elements acting upon it.

Mulch also acts as weed controller. It can prevent weeds from growing in areas that you do not want weeds to grow. Remove weeds from those areas where they are unwanted and add mulch to prevent weed growth. The natural properties of mulch are able to prevent weeds from growing any further.

Mulch is actually really good at enriching soil as well. It has so many nutrients that plants love. It should not be used as a soil substitute but as a soil additive. Too many nutrients can be bad for a plant. If you are interested in mulch solely for its enriching qualities black mulch is the best way to go. We do offer other mulches that still have enriching qualities but come in different color variations.

Some of the colors of mulch we offer are:

• Black • Brown • Red • Natural

Depending on what kind of look you are trying to attain for your landscape and if you want to follow the look of the environment around your landscape you have these various colors to choose from. Each mulch offers different qualities that another does not, for instance, the black mulch is high in soil enrichment qualities.

Mulches come in various colors to compliment the other plants on your landscape.

Mulch also keeps fruits clean. Fruits like strawberries which grow very close to the ground are kept clean because the mulch offers a fluff that will prevent dirt and debris from mixing to heavily into the fruit. Mulch can be very beneficial to other fruits or vegetables that grow close to the ground not only for its capability of keeping them clean but for its capability of enriching the soil.